Audi A7 drives it's self wherever you want to go, the technology is getting better and more realistic day by day.

• Piloted A7 displays the results of further character-building development work to foster ‘social competence’ 
• Audi A7 piloted driving concept: concept car impresses with its natural interaction with other road users during autobahn testing
• Navigation system can now devise routes containing maximum piloted driving opportunities
• Car-to-X communication: digital test site on the A9
• “First mile”: piloted driving in the urban environment

The evolution of the piloted Audi is continuing apace – the Vorsprung durch Technik brand’s latest research car, the Audi A7 piloted driving concept “Jack”, is now even more adept at operating just like a human driver – its autonomously performed motorway driving manoeuvres have been further refined, and it is now even more proficient at showing consideration for other road users. 

“Jack” exhibits a driving style that is adaptive to the given situation, safe and especially interactive – it is a research car with social competence.

Audi is continually advancing the development of its piloted driving test car. “Jack” – the internal nickname for the A7 Sportback-based technology platform – is now driving more naturally. 

This is illustrated by the way it confidently deals with hazardous points on the road, passes trucks with a slightly wider lateral gap and signals upcoming lane changes by activating the indicator and moving closer to the lane marking first – just like human drivers would do to indicate their intentions. The opportunities for taking full advantage of “Jack’s” piloted features are also now made more apparent to its driver – its sophisticated navigation system is now capable of computing a route containing the largest possible proportion of piloted driving sections.

The cooperative attitude of “Jack” is especially apparent when other vehicles want to merge into its lane on the motorway. Here the test car decides – based on the selected driving profile – whether to accelerate or brake, depending on which is best suited to handling the traffic situation harmoniously for all road users.

State-of-the-art zFAS controller

The super brain of piloted driving is the central driver assistance controller, or zFAS. It uses state-of-the-art, high-performance processors to evaluate the signals from all sensors in real-time and create a model of the car’s surroundings. This model represents the prevailing traffic situation as accurately as possible. It lets the zFAS calculate upcoming manoeuvres in advance, taking a look into the future, so to speak.

Piloted driving offers greater safety, more efficient utilisation of the transportation infrastructure and more relaxation time for the driver. Audi has already derived systems for assisted driving from the tested technologies, including the traffic jam assist function now available in the Audi A4 and Audi Q7.

Audi continues to document its progress in piloted driving with spectacular events. In the United States, for instance, a driverless Audi TTS etched the brand’s four rings trademark into the surface of a salt flat and also conquered the legendary hill climb up Pikes Peak in the Rocky Mountains without a driver. At the Hockenheim Motodrome, a driverless Audi RS 7 Sportback chased down the limits of driving physics in fall 2014. Since then, Audi has been demonstrating the next steps in piloted driving on public roads too, for example under real traffic conditions on American highways from the west coast to Las Vegas.

Digital test site on the A9 autobahn

The future is networked – this is especially applicable to piloted driving. In the future, cars and the infrastructure will communicate with one another more intensively. Common information interfaces are an important condition for this, so that the benefits of piloted driving can be better utilised on motorways. The digital test site on the A9 autobahn – announced by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure – offers ideal conditions for evaluating and further developing future functions and concepts together with representatives of the Free State of Bavaria, the automotive industry and the IT industry. The brand with the four rings can once again probe the technical possibilities of Car-to-X communication here – under real road conditions and in real time.

In the future, information on variable-message traffic signs, for example, will be digitally transmitted into the car in order to assist the traffic flow. In addition, Audi is defining and testing elements of the future communications standard 5G together with IT partners. Car-to-X communication immediately enables piloted driving cars to use paved road shoulders when these are temporarily opened.

Another step forward is Car-to-Car communication between automobiles that are travelling on the same routes. They can report on hazardous points and accidents in real time. The driving speeds of other road users operating with piloted driving are then automatically adjusted to the potential hazard.

The local infrastructure plays a special role for piloted driving on the motorway. In addition to sensors in the car, signals from the environment give the driver a precise preview of the road ahead. Audi’s partners for the digital test site on the A9 autobahn, for example, are testing the internal composition and modified material structure of roadside posts. These are to be designed to reflect the radar sensors of cars even from greater distances. In addition, project participants within the scope of the test parameters are studying special traffic signs that allow the test vehicles to localize their positions with high precision within the various driving lane markings.

For most customers, the complexity of traffic situations significantly intensifies again along the route segment from the motorway exit to city zones. Audi is researching and developing another test site for this so-called “first mile” in Bavaria, near the redesigned autobahn exit “Ingolstadt-Süd.” From 2017, Audi – together with the city of Ingolstadt – will be testing construction methods such as the use of different types of pavement as well as technical solutions such as the use of sensors in junction zones. Piloted driving research cars from Audi are already being incorporated into the design of the new infrastructure. Test operation should begin in 2018.